How to set up an Adwords account

If you're new to the ecommerce business, you'll quickly realize that search engines are your best friend. They can significantly increase your online brand awareness and ultimately are responsible for driving traffic to both your home and product pages.

Search engines, when leveraged properly, can prove to be a big boost for new ecommerce platforms, which highlights the importance for a business owner to understand and implement an Adwords account right away. Keeping that in mind, listed below are a few tips on how to set up an Adwords account:

Go to Google: First things first, you must go to Google or any other major search engine that offers a similar service to set up your account. The Adwords page can be found here. Once you've gone through the step-by-step process and created a custom account for your business, you can then begin to create a more personalized campaign for your platform.

Customize your campaign: Adwords is a great tool to have, but it's most effective when you tailor it to the exact needs of your business. Similar to that of a SEO or SEM campaign, it makes most sense for you to design an Adwords program to suit your company. This can include anything from selecting an appropriate title to choosing where you'd like your ads to be geographically located. For instance, if you've identified certain counties, states or regions where you're confident of high-grossing sales, then by all means, flood the Web with your name and brand.

Put a cap on your budget: The beauty of Google Adwords is that it can yield significant click-through rates if your exposure is high. Buyers beware, though, because if you don't set a daily or weekly budget for your campaign, Google or other search engines could keep sending ads to Internet users, thus creating a higher price point for your efforts. While you may want to reel in as many prospects as possible, your budget and ability to scale will ultimately determine the volume of clientele you want to interact with from the onset.

Don't be a spectator: Adwords is predicated on the pay-per-click theory, which fundamentally seems great. And while PPC is a valuable asset to have in an outreach effort, it's important to note that a lack of optimization can leave dollars on the table. The purpose of PPC is not to sit back and watch it do its work; rather, decision-makers must keep a close eye on which keywords are grossing the best results. Once the top few words and phrases are identified, you can focus more time, energy and financial resources to ensure that success continues.

Get predictive: If you're unsure about how much to allocate for an Adwords campaign, utilize one of Google's best tools: the traffic estimator. This function helps users determine an ideal budget for their program and the number of impressions - each time the advertisement is displayed on Google - or clicks you're looking for. In addition to budget estimation, this tool also can help determine where your ad falls on Google's search results after a campaign has launched.